A friend of mine recently mentioned that a bore brush used in cleaning a rifle would damage the rifling of the rifle. I laughed him to scorn, of course, since I didn’t know the facts.
However, I do not believe that he is correct.
Is he?
Thx,
hh
I have never heard of a bore brush damaging a rifle barrel. (And brass is much softer than steel, FWIW…)
Me neither, provided that the brush is clean, and hasn’t picked up any sand or grit. I have heard of bench rest guys taking the brush off after it clears the muzzle, rather than pulling the rod and brush back and having the brush interact with the crown of the muzzle. That’s probably excessive, but so’s bench rest shooting.
I have heard, but have not experienced or read studies about it, that the composition of the rod is important, and that one should choose brass or plastic-coated steel, to avoid having the rod mar the bore in some way.
If your brush is clean, the right size for the bore, and a brush made for cleaning gun barrels, I think you’d be fine.
In general, no it won’t with some caveats.
Cleaning a dirty barrel is a good thing to do as part of basic gun maintenance but it is possible to overdo it or do it incorrectly and have it be counterproductive. Reputable gun cleaning kits are generally safe if you follow the directions because they use softer metals and safe but effective cleaning solutions.
However, you can damage the muzzle of a gun if you start to improvise with your own brushes, cleaning rods or cleaning solutions (some people use gasoline, oils, brake fluid or even household cleaners like ammonia and some of those have the potential to permanently damage a barrel). Using steel cleaning rod or haphazardly jamming a brass cleaning rod down the muzzle at an angle repeatedly is not good either. Both of those can damage the muzzle area if you do it enough. Severe over cleaning even with a supposedly safe cleaning rod is overkill and can cause some unnecessary wear to the rifling but I am talking about doing it every day for years rather than a more normal schedule.
Shooting is a unbelievably geeky and exacting pursuit for some enthusiasts. Precision bench shooters in particular can go on for hours about their proffered cleaning methods and the reasons behind it but none of them that I know of are against softer metal brushes in general. Their sport depends on scientist level attention to detail as well as true experimentation to get a slight edge so I trust their opinion on this issue.
The most important part of the rifling is towards the muzzle. It is possible to damage that if you push the rod through the muzzle instead of the chamber. Sometimes this is necessary in certain rifles (or you can use a bore snake), e.g. Ruger 10/22. The damage would be from the rod rattling around, not the brush itself. They sell bore guides to fix this. I still prefer snakes.
Would ammonia really be bad? Ammonia based Windex is SOP for cleaning corrosive ammo. Although I understand that there’s a debate whether it is the ammonia or just water that cleans corrosive primer residue. But I’ve never heard anyone say ammonia was bad, just not necessary.
As far as rod material, I’ve heard every kind of argument. The most common seems to be not that the material is hard and will scratch, but that certain ones will pick up grit easier and that will scratch the bore.
OP: what does you friend suggest you do instead!?
Short answer is as long as you don’t mess up the crown of your barrel you should be just fine.
Thanks for the help and great info, all!
I pretty much agree with what others have said. None-the-less, I tend to be overly cautious whenever I clean my firearms, so I only use brushes that have bronze bristles and a brass core. They’re a little bit more expensive than other brushes, but the assurance that it’s virtually impossible to damage the bore with such a bristle is well worth it.
I have two rules when it comes to rods:
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Never use a segmented rod. You know… the ones where the short pieces screw together. Only use a one-piece rod.
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The surface of the rod should not be metal (SS, aluminum, bronze, whatever). The rod must be coated with a plastic/polymer.
I have fired a gun on several occasions, but have never owned one. I always assumed guns were typically cleaned after every use. Is this not true?
Depends on the owner. I clean my firearms after a day at the range or in the field, and if I happen to let a particular firearm sit around for more than a month, I clean it as well.
My dear father, on the other hand, is a one a year, whether it needs it or not, cleaner–drives me bonkers.
To me the amount of cleaning required depends on the type of firearm. Bolt, pump, or lever action rifle, not so much because very little gas and dirt get into the receiver. A semi automatic pistol or rifle needs more cleaning because the chamber pressure is higher when the breech opens so more dirt and debris is deposited into the action. An AR15,unless it’s a piston driven one, is a great example of how to get a gun dirty fastest. Hot gases are directly vented into the receiver to actuate the bolt carrier group. Can get very dirty in there.
Again, thank you to everybody who has responded, and alleviated my concerns.